Forty-One North restaurant offers farm to table' cuisine in Vermilion

VERMILION — Forty-One North is changing the way customers look at food.
“The ingredients we are using here, and the way we are preparing those items, are different than what you see in most restaurants,” Executive Chef William Skinner said. “We’re hydrating things a lot to make weird garnishes and trying to change the shapes and textures of different foods.”
Taking its name from the longitudinal location of Vermilion, Forty-One North mixes the concept of farm-to-table cuisine along with comfortable dining to bring to its customers a “new American food style” experience.
“It’s basically farm-to-table dining elevated with a touch of molecular gastronomy,” Skinner said.
Recently opened by owner Jim Trinter, Forty-One North, 4503 Liberty Ave., has found home in the former building that once housed his long-running Martino’s International Café.
Trinter said 17 years of success with Martino’s required expanding his operations — which included moving into the former Ponderosa Steak House at 4415 Liberty Ave. — but left the old building open for options.
“It’s been my baby since I bought it 17 years ago,” Trinter said. “Once we moved, it seemed like continuing what we had done here for so long was the natural thing to do, but in a different way.”
The long-time restaurateur said customers lent their feedback while Trinter weighed his options and many suggested bringing high-scale dining that included choice cuts of meats and seafood, but at a price that could be enjoyed more than once a year, or only on special occasions.
With concept in hand, Trinter said he went out in search of a staff that could bring his customers’ request to fruition. Among those hires were Skinner — an up and coming chef who has gained a following among foodies that spans across nearly a dozen states — and General Manager Robert Rupp, Trinter’s life-long friend.
“To me, it was a no-brainer,” Trinter said. “Skinner had a great reputation and a big following, and Robert goes back to my McGarvey’s (restaurant) days where he served as my general manager. So he has ties with the local community. Those were two parts of this equation that just seemed to make sense. Bringing those two together seemed like a natural pairing.”The chef
For Skinner, the 29-year-old chef said his passion for the art of cuisine began 10 years ago while dating.
His significant other was attending culinary school, but his financial burdens left him on the outside looking in. While his girlfriend labored for her love of cooking in the classroom and kitchen, Skinner said he took a much different approach: he decided to pick up a book.
“I got bored one day, so I started reading her textbooks,” he said. “From there, I just fell in love with it.”
Skinner knew in order to excel in the culinary world he would need to obtain skills only learned through hands-on experience. Joining his girlfriend was not an option, since the teenager — whose mother passed away shortly after being diagnosed with leukemia — was struggling to make ends meet.
“Financially, it just wasn’t possible for me to go to culinary school,” he said.
While continuing to hit the books, Skinner said he spent the next 18 months as a stagiaire, volunteering his time alongside some of the best chefs in the country.
His time staging, repetitious processes in the kitchen, day in and day out, created a learning experience otherwise unmatched in a classroom, Skinner said.
“In culinary school, they might show you how to make a stock one day, and then never revisit that concept again,” he said. “Working in a kitchen, I was making stocks every day, so it became burned into my brain.”
Unbeknownst to him, Skinner said he and his sous-chef, Alicia Lake, were introduced to Distinguished Restaurants of North America award-winning chef and restaurateur Ben Zandi while working in Kentucky.
“He came in, and I didn’t know who he was at the time,” Skinner said. “I later found out he was the owner of the multi (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) award-winning restaurant, the Troutdale Dining Room in Bristol, Tennessee.”
Skinner and Lake were given the opportunity as sous chefs to work for Zandi under the guidance of Darrin Shelly, who served as executive chef of the Troutdale Dining Room and Skinner’s mentor, Skinner said.
From there, the three of them left Zandi’s establishment and ventured to North Carolina to run the kitchen of one of the most prestigious private country clubs in Greensborough.
There, Skinner won his first two Distinguished Restaurants of North America awards at the ages of 22 and 23.
Homesick, Skinner returned to Ohio two years ago and brought Shelly’s “farm-to-table movement” to Huron as executive chef of Thunderbird Hills Golf Club’s Bar North.
“We wanted to shake things up,” he said. “When you’re on the golf course, you often think of things like chicken tenders and cheese sticks. We didn’t want to do that.”
Skinner’s time spent in Huron continued to bring accolades for the young chef, while he continued to hone the concepts and techniques taught to him by Shelly.
Just recently, he was nominated by the International Restaurant Association and finished fourth against 50 of the country’s best chefs younger than 30.
“Shelly is a huge influence to me, not just because he taught me proper technique, but also because he introduced me to the ‘farm-to-table’ concept of fine cuisine,” he said.
Shelly’s introduction to farm-to-table cuisine has stuck with Skinner and has been carried over to Forty-One North.
Fruits, vegetables and proteins all are purchased locally, ensuring freshness and care; whether it’s growing produce or raising livestock, Skinner said.
He said his crew work hand-in-hand with farmer Lee Jones, proprietor of The Chef’s Garden in Huron.
“Farmer Lee Jones has the most successful produce in the world,” he said. “If you are an elite chef, you use his products. He is a culinary icon.”The food
For those familiar with Martino’s, the first thing noticed when dining at Forty-One North is the trimmed down menu. Trinter’s traditional menu with more than 100 food items has been trimmed down by Skinner to roughly 30 seasonal appetizers, salads, main dishes and desserts.
By keeping the menu small, Skinner said he and his staff are able to routinely change items based on the seasonal availability of the produce, providing new dining experiences for customers throughout the year.
“For instance, if you get asparagus here, we’re only serving it three months out of the year, because that is the only time it is in season,” he said. “After that, we switch and go to a different vegetable that is in season.”
Skinner said by investing time in local farms, he and his chefs are embracing the “old way of doing things.” A handshake and an understanding of how their products are produced ensure quality to the customer.
“We’re going to these places and seeing the cattle being raised and seeing how they treat the animals before we serve it,” he said. “We’re working with farmers who continue to grow produce the same ways our grandmothers and grandfathers did years ago. That’s what’s most important: knowing and learning about what you’re serving.”
Locally picked produce is not limited to only the dinner menu, Skinner said. Pastry Chef Jessica Krause and Bar manager-mixologist Nikki Weatherwax infuse their creations with locally grown fruits.
Krause’s Spiced Chocolate Mousse and Weatherwax’s Kiwi Blueberry Mojito both incorporate blueberries picked right from the Baumhart Berry Farm on Baumhart Road in Vermilion.
Alongside the menu’s main dishes, which include Skinner’s take on duck, lamb, salmon and lobster, Forty-One North also offers classic dishes — with a twist — reminiscent of popular comfort foods that many were raised on, he said.
“You can come in, and even though we have the upscale items, you can still get a classic, comforting dish like our Gert’s Fried Chicken,” he said. “My grandmother always made us fried chicken, and my grandfather made the best cornbread, so I wanted to do something like that, but with the new American food style added to it.
“Whenever you think about American food, you automatically think about a hotdog or a cheeseburger; you don’t really think about revolutionary cuisine. That’s just the perception we have, and we want to change that. We want to change the way people are eating, thinking about and viewing food.”
Restaurant hours are from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; and 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
For more information about the restaurant or the menu, call 440-967-4141 or visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/41northvermilion.